Gendered movement ecology and landscape use in Hadza hunter-gatherers

Brian M. Wood (), Jacob A. Harris, David A. Raichlen, Herman Pontzer, Katherine Sayre, Amelia Sancilio, Colette Berbesque, Alyssa N. Crittenden, Audax Mabulla, Richard McElreath, Elizabeth Cashdan and James Holland Jones
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Brian M. Wood: University of California
Jacob A. Harris: Arizona State University
David A. Raichlen: University of Southern California
Herman Pontzer: Duke University
Katherine Sayre: University of Southern California
Amelia Sancilio: University of Chicago
Colette Berbesque: University of Roehampton
Alyssa N. Crittenden: University of Nevada
Audax Mabulla: University of Dar es Salaam
Richard McElreath: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Elizabeth Cashdan: University of Utah
James Holland Jones: Stanford University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2021, vol. 5, issue 4, 436-446

Abstract: Abstract Understanding how gendered economic roles structure space use is critical to evolutionary models of foraging behaviour, social organization and cognition. Here, we examine hunter-gatherer spatial behaviour on a very large scale, using GPS devices worn by Hadza foragers to record 2,078 person-days of movement. Theory in movement ecology suggests that the density and mobility of targeted foods should predict spatial behaviour and that strong gender differences should arise in a hunter-gatherer context. As predicted, we find that men walked further per day, explored more land, followed more sinuous paths and were more likely to be alone. These data are consistent with the ecology of male- and female-targeted foods and suggest that male landscape use is more navigationally challenging in this hunter-gatherer context. Comparisons of Hadza space use with space use data available for non-human primates suggest that the sexual division of labour likely co-evolved with increased sex differences in spatial behaviour and landscape use.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-01002-7

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